What were the main causes of World War One?
Militarism Alliances Imperialism Nationalism are generally cited as the main causes of WW1. However, much more important as a cause was Germany’s desire to replace Britain as the leading world power. To do this, Germany needed more colonies. Not unified as a single nation until 1871, and not having started to build up a powerful navy until the 1890s, Germany didn’t have many colonies; even minor European powers such as Belgium and Portugal had bigger overseas empires than Germany. As most of the world had already been divided up by imperial powers, the only way to get more colonies was to take them from another country. To do this, Germany needed a general European war to break out. They believed they would win such a war quickly, and then gain new colonies from defeated enemies as part of a peace settlement. Germany needed such a war to happen before 1916. Their main enemies were France and Russia which, as they were allies, meant a 2 front war. The German strategy to deal with this w
